


We're the Wild Ones (raised by wolves we howl to the moon)

by Neverander



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-04-16 16:58:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4633011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverander/pseuds/Neverander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newly turned werewolf and orphan Danny Lawrence wanders into Storybrook and is taken in by resident werewolf Ruby Lucas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're the Wild Ones (raised by wolves we howl to the moon)

**Author's Note:**

> I reused Danny's dream from a previous fic because that's pretty much how I will always envision Danny being turned but the two are obviously not related.  
> I also have not watched ouat past the second season so I made this world based around that and how I wish the show had progressed, that said I doubt you need much knowledge of either canon universe for this.

_The heat of the fire is warm and comforting on her skin in contrast to the chill night air. Her hands are sticky from the marshmallow in her smore. She leans back on the log and kicks her feet towards the fire; that’s when the screaming starts. She freezes. Her eyes dart around what she can see of the campsite. She can’t find her parents. She jumps up and runs as fast as her little legs can carry her to where she last saw them. There are dark shapes all over the ground; she knows they are other families, she keeps running._

_The screaming is so loud._

_She skids to a stop as something warm and wet spatters her face but her feet keep sliding and her hands hit the ground in a puddle of warm blood.  
Her mother’s one good eye stares at her, the rest of her face is a ruin of flesh, and she doesn’t move. Past her she can only recognize her father by his worn work boots, the rest of him is blood and flesh and intestines spilled on the ground she’s kneeling on. She stands, shaky, and sees the wolf out of her peripheral vision for the first time. _

_Her jaw snaps shut and the sudden ringing silence in her ears tells her she was the one screaming all along. Her chest heaves. The wolf moves closer, it’s eyes flashing in the campfire light. It lunges for her; she sucks in a breath and never screams again._  
\--  
Danny shoots up from her bed, landing gracefully on her feet. Her heart is pounding, her teeth ache, and her skin burns. She stalks to the open window and swings her long limbs over the ledge. By the time she hits the ground the wolf has burst from her skin and she tears down Main Street on all fours. She runs to the woods at the edge of town, she runs until the sun rises, until her feet hurt, until she can no longer feel the warm blood coating her skin.  
\--  
Ruby chases her quietly into the night. Understanding the need to run Ruby simply follows at a distance until the young girl grows tired and lays down at the edge of the cliffs. Ruby sits down beside her. Danny is only twelve but her wolf is still an impressive size, she shakes and her fur bristles with her fear.  
Ruby slowly pets her head, stroking the fur gently to calm her. She isn’t used to this yet. She isn’t used to being the responsible one, to taking care of someone other than herself.  
-  
_This small wolf girl wandered into their town with a family of tourists, an orphan, recently fostered out and brought along on a family trip they’d planned before knowing her. She walked in their wake as they all entered the diner, shoulders hunched, trying to be as small as possible but already growing out of her skin all long, gangly limbs. Ruby noticed her the moment she entered. Granny came from the back at the scent of a new wolf in town. She and Ruby made eye contact conveying the need to watch her; a young wolf alone was a dangerous thing. So Ruby made small talk with the family and coaxed some of the story from the mother who spoke of the incident in a hushed whisper that Ruby knew did not escape the young girl in the slightest. Ruby winced in sympathy as the mother carefully spoke of the tragic death of the girl’s family along with the rest of the families at the campsite._ So tragic, ten years old, she doesn’t speak, we just don’t know what to do with her really. “Danny.”  
_Danny looked ready to leap from her skin to escape the conversation. Eventually she quietly excused herself from the booth, brushing hurriedly past the other two children to find the restroom._  
_Ruby found her hyperventilating in the laundry room, tucked between the washer and dryer. Her breath stuttered from her chest. Wet, golden, eyes stared at Ruby in fear as she knelt in front of her, her clawed nails dug into her palms drawing rivets of blood. Ruby smiled, showing none of her teeth in an attempt to comfort her. She coaxed her out eventually, Danny had known Ruby was a wolf and after her last and only encounter with one she wasn’t ready to trust another, but she also didn’t know how to handle being one and Ruby offered to help._  
_In the end they couldn’t let her leave town. She had nightmares in the night then too. Ruby had chased her down with less calm results than they had now; the wolf had been in full control then. Ruby had brought a crying, frightened, child to the only person in town who could help them keep her and that was Regina Mills. Regina took one look at Danny, covered in blood and dirt, shaking under Ruby’s arm and invited her in, tucked her in a blanket on the couch with some of her best hot chocolate and asked her what she wanted._  
_She wanted help. She wanted to stay._  
_They wiped Danny from existence._  
_They made the family forget and took out all trace of her. She became Danny Lucas from then on._  
-  
Danny shifts to her human form in her sleep and it startles Ruby out of her daze. Danny is curled up with her head on her arm and her feet tucked under Ruby’s calf. She’s still in her pajamas and shivers in the early morning air. This is when Ruby reaches out to wake her. She startles violently but calms quickly as she meets Ruby’s eyes. She sits up on her elbow and tiredly wipes her eyes. “Sorry. Again.”  
Ruby shakes her head and brushes back her hair. “No, no, I’m just here to take you home. You don’t have to apologize to me.”  
“But I- I keep-“  
“I’ve been there. I know, and you don’t have anything to be sorry about.”  
Danny sits up and curls into Ruby’s side. “I’m still sorry.”  
Ruby weaves her hand into Danny’s hair and scratches at her scalp. “Do you want to talk about it?”  
Danny shakes her head but then, “Can I, just, can we talk about-“ But Danny doesn’t know where she stands. She feels like Ruby got trapped with her because she’s a wolf, because she’s dangerous, because Ruby is a good person and Danny needed help. She wants her mom. She wants Ruby to be her mom but she’s old enough to know that Ruby didn’t ask for this. She shakes herself free of Ruby’s hand and stands up. Ruby follows, confused. “We should go back.”  
“Danny you can talk to me. I promise I’ve seen a lot-“  
Danny shakes her head with conviction. “No. No I’m not ready for this.” She’s not ready to find out that Ruby doesn’t want her.  
“Okay.”  
They head back to the Inn in silence.  
-  
“I don’t know what to do.”  
Regina nods in sympathy. “It’s hard at that age. You know Henry, that’s when he started adventuring on his own and trying to destroy me.”  
Ruby snorts. “Well at least we don’t have to hide that from her. She was pretty ready to roll with anything after being turned into a werewolf.” Ruby sighs. “ I just want her to talk to me, you know? I just, I don’t want to mess this up Regina. You did so well with Henry,“ she waves away Regina’s protests. “No you did. For all the crazy that happened because of what this town is. You did. That boy turned out so damn well. He’s still going to Boston College isn’t he?”  
“He is. He’s very excited about it, as you’ve heard.”  
“She’s been with us for over a year now and she still won’t talk to me. I know something is bothering her, other than the nightmares.”  
“I don’t know if anyone has said this to you already but you’re doing quite well.”  
“It doesn’t feel that way.”  
Regina takes her hand, the touch surprises Ruby so much she actually startles. “You are. That girl adores you. She’s doing well at school and she has made friends and she has control of her wolf. She looks happy to me but the fact that you can tell there’s something wrong is very telling.” She releases Ruby’s hand as though she never took it. “Perhaps you should just ask her directly. I think she would tell you if it was serious but you know her better than I do.”  
Ruby sighs again. “Yeah.”  
-  
Danny sits beside Henry in the castle after school. He’d instantly taken to the only other outsider that the town has ever really had, barring Emma Swan. He wanted to make her feel welcome and despite the age difference they’d become friends.  
“Okay, Little Red, “ he smiles as Danny glares at him. It had been Regina who had called her Red first, smirking as she side-eyed Ruby. The name had stuck even after the long and winding explanation of fairytales in Storybrook. It’s an inside joke shared by the whole town and while Danny pretends it annoys her, it makes her feel like she belongs there. “What’s bugging you?”  
Danny leans her head on his shoulder and she actually has to slouch a little to do so, she’s gotten so tall. “Are you excited for college?”  
Henry indulges her attempt to distract him. “Yeah I am. I’ve always wanted to live in Boston, you know? It’ll be an adventure, a normal adventure for once.” He jostles her a little. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”  
Danny’s eyes fill with tears inexplicably. When she speaks her voice is watery and breaking. “I don’t know if Ruby is my mom, like, does she want to be my mom? Does she consider herself my mom? Can I call her mom? I want her to be, you know?”  
He moves so he can look at her and tries to wipe the tears from her eyes. “Aw, Red, Ruby loves you. She does.”  
She chokes out, “I know.” But only cries harder, “but I just happened to her. I just fell into her life and didn’t want to leave. I chose to stay and now I just and you’re leaving and you’re my best friend and I just—I want her to want me.”  
Henry hugs her close and lets her cry into his shoulder, soaking his shirt. “She does. She does want you.” His throat is tight. He wants to be there for her because he knows that feeling but he knows no one could have convinced him his mother loved him no matter what they said. It’s how everything got started in the first place. So he keeps holding her until she cries herself out. He makes her hot chocolate back at his house and by the time he walks her home she looks completely normal. She thanks him for listening and asks if he’ll go to her soccer game, which of course he will, and by the time she heads in to finish up her homework he would never have guessed that she felt so alone.  
-  
Henry feels weird sitting in front of Ruby and Regina, whom he asked to be here, as they look at him expectantly. “So Danny wanted to talk to me and I didn’t really know what to do so I figured I’d talk to Mom but then it involves Danny so I should talk to Ruby and then I just figured both of you might be best.”  
Ruby looks about ready to leave her skin she is so tense by the time Henry stops talking.  
Regina rubs a hand along Ruby’s arm to calm her. “Maybe it would be best if you just told us, dear.”  
“Danny doesn’t- Danny isn’t sure,” He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, it’s just, Danny doesn’t know if you’re her mom. Like, she wants to call you mom but she feels, like a burden to you? I feel weird telling you but she never said I couldn’t and I just-she’s so sad. I never would have guessed how banged up she is about this.”  
Ruby looks about ready to cry herself. “I messed this up.” She drops her head in her hands. “ How did I mess this up so badly? Regina, how did I, how could she not know? Fuck!” She waves in Henry’s direction as a half-hearted apology.  
Regina rubs at her arms. “Henry, thank you for telling us but maybe?” He nods and happily leaves the room, hoping that this all works out for the best. “Ruby, you didn’t do anything wrong.”  
“Regina, she doesn’t know she’s my _daughter._ How do you fuck up being a parent that badly? _How_?”  
“This is a very unique situation and Danny is more astute than I would expect a twelve year old to be. Considering that Henry took a bus to Boston at ten I should have known better but this isn’t your fault.”  
“I didn’t want to push her but I love her. I told her that. I just didn’t want to replace her mom you know? I didn’t want to make her call me mom if she wasn’t ready but I never thought she would assume I didn’t want to be her mom.”  
“Well this is clearly the thing that’s been bothering her. I think it’s time you do ask her about it directly.”  
“No one should have trusted me with a child. The big bad wolf turned town harlot turned waitress, who the hell thought I could raise a child?”  
“I did. Your granny did. Honestly, no one has ever doubted you’re ability to care and protect others. That’s who you are. You are a great mother and she loves you. So you’re going to go and talk to her and tell her you love her and that she is your daughter.”  
“You did?”  
“I wouldn’t have stolen her away from the outside world if I thought you couldn’t raise a child Ruby.” Regina almost scoffs. “I’ve seen you with children. You have always been exceptionally good with kids, including Henry. He still adores you.”  
Ruby laughs at the memory of Henry as a toddler following her around the diner. “Okay.” She pulls herself back from the edge of tears. “Okay. I’m going to find her right now.”  
Ruby Lucas is one of those people who never ceases to amaze Regina. She is such a genuinely pure-hearted person Regina can barely believe she exists. Regina leans in without thinking and kisses her lightly on the cheek.  
Ruby freezes, looking at her so much like a confused puppy that Regina almost laughs. “For luck.”  
They both know Regina has never in her life done something so superfluous but Ruby lets it go for the moment and leaves to find Danny. She still throws a curious look over her shoulder at Regina as she jogs down the street.  
-  
Danny is practicing by herself at the soccer field. She always has to tone down her reflexes and her strength. She doubts she’ll be able to play on a team at all much longer before it just becomes completely unfair regardless of how she tries to hold back. But for now, she lets herself go, blurring around the field at inhuman speeds with the ball, making the most difficult shots she can at the net.  
Ruby finds her juggling the ball as high as she can into the air, never letting it touch the ground. “Hey Little Red.”  
Danny briefly looks away from the ball to smile at her. “Hey-“ she stutters and the ball spikes away from her, “Ruby.”  
Ruby wonders how she never noticed that hesitation before. “I wanted to talk to you.”  
“Okay, one sec, let me just,” She shoots off after the ball, retrieves it and her backpack in record time before standing again in front of Ruby, she is nearly Ruby’s height now. “Ready.”  
Ruby laughs and ruffles her hair. Danny freely expressing her wolf is one of Ruby’s favorite things to see. It’s when Danny is at her happiest. She thinks she’ll suggest Danny join track and field where she can test herself against her personal best and not have to worry about the other kids.  
They reach the Diner and instead of going on to the Inn Ruby lets them inside. It’s late enough that no one is really around. She grabs them a booth in the back. She lets Danny settle in. “You hungry?” Danny nods vigorously. “Burger?”  
“Definitely. Yes please.”  
Ruby goes back and orders for them. It’s weird not being the lone waitress at the Diner anymore but she only does it part time now that she has Danny and pretty much owns the place. Granny retiring a few months back threw her, she never imagined she would see the day, but now it’s a good place for kids in high school to work and with the town expanding and joining the real world it’s worked out well.  
Once they have their food Ruby isn’t really sure where to start this conversation. So she just goes for it because when has subtlety ever been her strong suit? “Red, Danny, you know I love you right?”  
Danny, who was inhaling her rare burger, slows down at this. “Yes?” Her heart rate kicks up just a little and she sets the burger, half finished, completely down.  
“I don’t know how to tell you, to explain-“  
Danny panics. “Did Henry tell you?”  
“He mentioned but Danny-“  
Danny is almost out of her seat, “I’m not ready for this.”  
Ruby shoots around the table, tugging Danny back down and kneeling in front of her “Danny I love you, you’re my daughter. I’m sorry that you somehow didn’t see that but you are. I am your mom. I didn’t ever want to- to- replace the mother you lost so I was just, trying to give you time but I am. I am your mom. I need you to know that okay?”  
All the tension, all the air, leaves Danny’s body at once. She sags into her seat, tears running down her face. She doesn’t really know where they came from and she can’t make it stop. “Really?”  
“Really. I’m so sorry you ever felt that I wasn’t.”  
“So I can, I mean,” she sniffles a little, feeling ridiculous, feeling like a child for the first time in a long time. “I can call you mom?”  
Ruby feels herself tear up in response to Danny crying. “Yes. I would love that. I always wanted you to I just didn’t want to push.”  
Danny throws herself into Ruby’s arms.  
\--  
Danny is the fastest person in town, human or wolf. She is fifteen and she’s grown into her long limbs with athletic grace. So when things go wrong, as they always seem to go in Storybrook, she’s there for backup before anyone else. It drives Ruby insane.  
“Go home right now!”  
Danny shoots past her, her red hair the only identifiable part of her as she blurs past.  
Magic being brought to Storybrook came with a tendency for magic to go awry; especially when people experimented with forces they didn’t understand. Regina was currently trying to defuse one such situation. She was not having much success trying to calm a group of possessed teens while simultaneously holding back on the full force of her own magic.  
The levitated car was a hairs breath away from slamming into Regina from behind as Danny scooped her up without breaking stride. It slammed into the ground with enough force the shatter the pavement. Danny circled back to Ruby, setting down a moderately shocked, slightly indignant Regina. “You shouldn’t be here Red.”  
“Yeah, where else would I be?”  
“Are you kidding? I just saved you.”  
Danny and Ruby answered simultaneously and just looked at each other before turning back to Regina. This kind of thing had been happening more frequently since Ruby and Regina had officially started dating. The old world names had been creeping back into the town.  
Ruby shook her head. “Anyway, thank you Danny, now go home.” Her tone brooked no argument.  
Danny looked between them and the glowing forms of some of her classmates, “but I can help. I know them. I have to help.”  
Regina got a familiar feeling in her chest as when Henry threw himself into danger for the sake of the town. He was safe at Boston College, having a normal life. Emma had returned to her roots in Boston as well to be close to him and keep an eye out, just in case. Both frequently returned to Storybrook during breaks and long weekends but Regina missed him regardless.  
Ruby looks to her for help and Regina looks back at Danny; the hard set of her shoulders and the clench of her jaw, she isn’t going anywhere. “Stay behind us.”  
Danny bounces a little with excitement as she swoops behind them, she would have to duck almost comically low to actually be hidden behind them but it’s the intent that matters here.  
By the time they free the students and call their parents and lecture everyone involved on the danger of magic the sun has set and Danny is propped up tiredly against a lamppost. Ruby drops down next to her bumping shoulders, “ready to go home?”  
Danny nods sleepily, “so ready. Did I really need to be involved in that lecture? I live with Regina, I know what magic is about.”  
Ruby shrugs, smirking. “Never hurts to reiterate things. Especially since you wouldn’t leave when I told you to.”  
Now Danny shrugs, “I could never do that.”  
“I know.” She can’t really fault her because she’s the same way. She stands then and pulls Danny up with her.  
Regina saunters past them, “shall we?”  
They head home together. This is Danny’s family.  
\--  
Henry is home for the summer and he’s been regaling Danny with stories about Boston and college life all afternoon. She is so happy to see him and has, in turn, been filling him in on the strange happenings of the town, especially the strangest part of all which is how it is slowly being integrated with the rest of Maine.  
“There are so many outsiders Henry I swear. I have to be careful now when I run around town, Mom too of course but, you know.”  
“Yeah, that sucks. You mostly ran at night anyway at least.”  
“Yeah but I joined track last year and no one cared when I ran my hardest, they just didn’t count me against anyone else but now I might have to just stop.”  
Henry wraps an arm around her shoulder, pulling her down to a reasonable height, “I feel like keeping outsiders in town can’t last that long with all the magic that flies around. Don’t stress about it just yet. Now tell me,” his grin is full of mischief. “Who had Little Red tripping over her feet in one of her final track meets of the year?”  
Danny scoffs indignantly and shoves him, “Who told you that!? It was mom wasn’t it? I can’t believe.”  
“Oh please, my parents are Emma I-have-no-chill Swan and The Evil Queen you can’t even imagine the teasing and embarrassment when I first liked someone. And it was my mom actually.”  
“Of course it was.”  
“So who?”  
Danny blushes to the tips of her ears. She hadn’t really been interested in anyone at all for the longest time. It just sort of snuck up on her. One day she was fine and the next she was tripping over her feet at Alice’s smile. They’d been fast friends, Alice ever intrigued by anything magic and Danny happy to have someone who wasn’t weary of her wolf, though most try to hide it Danny could always tell when someone had that fear. Alice wasn’t afraid of anything.  
“It’s Alice. She came to the meet and I saw her in the stand and I just, lost focus. Don’t laugh Henry Mills!” She shoves him again.  
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just you were such a clumsy kid I can picture it perfectly. Alice from wonderland, huh? I can’t say I’m surprised, you two have always been close.”  
“Yeah but it- it was never like that you know? I don’t know where the feelings came from. I’ve never-“ she shrugs.  
“Well I hope it works out.”  
Danny scoffs. “A wolf and girl from another land, it’s like a fairytale.” She winks at Henry as she ducks away from his attempt to whack her arm. She’s definitely mostly kidding, but there’s a small part of her that hopes.  
\--  
When Danny goes to Silus she doesn’t tell her parents anything about it. Well, nothing about the supernatural aspects of it. The part that made it feel like home. Unlike Henry, Danny couldn’t imagine being away from it. She has too much wolf in her to just live in a city and pretend to be normal. When she saw Silus it called to her, that underlying magic throughout the campus, but she didn’t want them to worry so she never mentioned it.  
Her time at Silus was relatively normal all things considered. She was used to dodging weird magic mishaps and unexplained phenomena growing up in Storybrook. She kept her information home as normal as possible, peppering in a few fun stories here and there. When she went home during breaks she happily shared her more supernatural adventures with Henry who promised to put everything into a novel someday.  
Regina had all but adopted Danny as one of her own since her and Ruby started living together. Danny still calls her Regina but the connection is strong, has been ever since she brought Danny into the town.  
So when Danny falls for a small wannabe reporter in her Lit class her Junior year and all the supernatural aspects of Silus become less a sense and more of a sharp, glaring, dangerous monster in the night she goes to Regina first. She casually asked for advice and Regina answered as best she could without probing too hard; something Ruby would never have been able to hold back on, as evidence by the five minute long rant she got when Ruby called her a few days later.  
When everything went to literal hell and Danny lost Laura to a vampire and lost that vampire to a pit it was Ruby she called. Danny was an emotional wreck; she is sure Ruby heard nothing but sobbing and apologies as she tried to explain what happened.  
Danny doesn’t handle losing people well, for obvious reasons, and how much she came to care for Carmilla snuck up on her, as most of her feelings do. So when Kirsch comes to her and tells her they found Carmilla she doesn’t hesitate for an instant. She doesn’t stop moving until Carmilla is back with Laura and they are both awake and alive. The relief that Danny feels when Carmilla rises from Laura’s bed, her sass still fully intact, overshadows the fact that in the end of all this Danny ends up alone.  
When she calls home at the end of that day she isn’t even sure how she feels anymore but at least she can tell them that she saved someone.  
\--  
Danny still has nightmares but ever since she had started sharing a bed with someone else back in high school she has gotten better at her reaction to them. She wakes up suddenly but without much movement. Her heart pounds and she can smell the blood coating her hands as she tries to keep her organs from spilling out of her chest, it’s always the same.  
She checks that Laura is still asleep and carefully slides from the bed. She never has to worry about Carmilla, who despite adjusting her schedule to spend more time with them is still largely a nocturnal creature.  
She drops from their window and lands as a wolf, when she reaches the tree line she turns back. She runs barefoot and human through the Silus’ woods needing to feel the air on her face and the trees scrape her skin. She needs to smell the air and know that she is still whole, that her family is still intact. The nightmares shift sometimes so that it’s Ruby, Regina, Henry dead with Danny unable to do anything to save them. She hates those dreams more than anything. They make her panic. She feels it now creeping in her chest. She runs until she reaches the lone tree on the hill that stretches out to look over the bay. The sky is nothing but stars. Carmilla brought her and Laura out here late one night and ever since it had been theirs. Danny feels safe here. So she sits under the tree, watches the stars, and waits.  
Carmilla always finds her here. She gets back to the dorm finds Laura alone and sets off after Danny. Danny isn’t sure why she started doing it but one night after a nightmare Carmilla found her here and ever since she always comes.  
Tonight Carmilla slides into her lap and curls into her chest burying her face in Danny’s throat. Danny’s arms slide around her without thought, holding her securely. For a while they don’t speak. Carmilla just listens to the sound of Danny’s heartbeat.  
“Do you want to talk about it?” Carmilla’s breath is hot on Danny’s throat and she shivers.  
“Just nightmares from when I was turned.” She shrugs, like it’s nothing. She knows Carmilla’s story, knows it’s worse. She feels weak for how it still affects her and can’t really imagine how Carmilla could think her anything but weak as well.  
“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”  
Carmilla has gone completely still in Danny’s arms. Danny moves them slowly so that she can look at Carmilla’s eyes. She thinks maybe this is why Carmilla always finds her. Maybe she always wanted to talk about it with someone who would understand, even if only a little. “Yeah? Only if you want to, honestly Carm, I’m okay.”  
“I want to.”  
Danny has never seen Carmilla so small, well, not since she carried her from the pit. She was so so small and broken then. It hurts her to think about and it hurts her to see Carmilla this way now. “Okay.”  
Danny explains her nightmares, how she was turned, how her first family was killed and she was wolf alone, about how her dreams include her family now and she always wakes up as she dies. Carmilla talks little about the night she was actually murdered and turned, her family dead and scattered around her, and more about her time in the coffin. She explains how she feels so claustrophobic in the dark even when she can see; it’s the stars that help to assuage her panic and also being near her and Laura. She was drowning in the dark for seventy years so sometimes she just needs to hear their hearts beat and watch the stars.  
“It’s why I, well, I actually like nights like this. I’m sorry about your nightmares but I’m just happy to be close to you, under the stars. I saw you out here and it was everything I needed all at once.”  
Danny’s arms tighten around her. “You can always wake me. We can come out here together whenever you want. You don’t always have to wait for me.”  
Carmilla meets her eyes again; she can’t believe the level of Danny’s sincerity. She kisses her deeply as the sun begins to rise over the horizon line.  
“We should head back.”  
Carmilla nods in a agreement and buries her face back in Danny’s neck. “It is time for me to sleep after all.”  
Danny scoffs and stands with Carmilla in her arms. “I know. Lucky you.”  
She carries her all the way back to the dorms. Laura is still asleep when they get back. They settle in behind her, Carmilla happily between Laura and Danny. They fall asleep almost instantly.  
When Laura’s alarm goes off only two hours have passed. 

 

Danny finds Laura at the outdoor section of the caf and sits down beside her, resting her tired head on her shoulder.  
“I regret waking up so early.”  
“Want to talk about it?”  
Danny shakes her head, “not really, no.”  
“Well, you know, I’m here if you ever want to.”  
Danny sits up and kisses her cheek. “Yeah I know. Carm and I talked and it’s- it’s better. You don’t have to worry so much.” But even as she said it she could smell magic in the air. She recognized it too.  
She snags Laura around the waste and yanks them both under the table as a fireball shoots through the air and hits the mist forming behind them. Danny spins to face Rumplestilskin, keeping Laura behind her. She bares her teeth, claws out on both hands, “what are you doing here?”  
“I finally find my child and of course he’s here with the likes of you.”  
“What are-“  
“Stay away from them!” Ruby growls. She’s at their side in an instant, Regina not far behind.  
“I’m here for what’s mine. You of all people can understand that.”  
Regina shakes her head, “She isn’t Baelfire anymore Gold. Time works differently here and she is a brand new person.”  
Magic lances through the air toward Regina, Ruby intercepts it, her whole body spasms before she drops to the ground. “MOM!” Danny lunges half transformed at Gold but Carmilla hits him from the side before she reaches him. Carmilla buries her claws in his throat and he disappears in a cloud of dark smoke.  
Carmilla is at their side instantly, “are you okay?” She reaches for them, Laura leans into her but Danny pulls away and runs back to Ruby.  
“Mom? Mom!” She kneels down beside Ruby. Regina is already over her, her hands glowing bright.  
“It’s alright. She’s going to be fine, dear.”  
Danny is having trouble breathing. She can’t do this again. She sees the ruined remains of her mother’s face flash over Ruby. She can’t lose another mother.  
Regina places one hand at her chest and another on her cheek, making direct eye contact, “Danny, Daniella, breathe slowly. It’s okay. Honey, she’s okay. It isn’t happening again I promise. We won’t leave you.”  
Ruby sits up in Danny’s periphery. Danny turns her head free of Regina’s hand and drops her head to Ruby’s chest tears silently spilling from her eyes.  
“It’s okay. I’m sorry we ended up here at all. Things did not go as planned, as usual.”  
Danny huffs out a watery laugh, “yeah I remember.” She takes a deep breath. “You’d think I’d be used to this sort of thing by now.”  
Regina crosses her arms. “Yes with the way your mother throws herself into danger constantly.” Regina glares at her.  
Ruby glares back. “Or you could thank me.”  
“I would have been fine. You’re the one who shouldn’t be involved in a magic fight. Either of you, honestly.”  
“Um, Danny?” Laura intrudes quietly; she leans forward from under Carmilla’s arm.  
Danny hastily wipes her eyes. “Yeah Laur?”  
“You never talk about- are these your parents?”  
All three of them stand. Danny towers over Regina comically while her and Ruby are closer in height, though Danny is still much taller, she keeps an arm across Ruby’s shoulders. “Yeah, I mean, kind of? This is…a weird way to introduce you all. This is my mom Ruby Lucas and, well, Regina Mills. Mom, Regina, these are my girlfriends Laura and Carmilla.”  
“You’re dating two people?”  
“You’re dating a vampire?”  
Ruby and Regina speak at the same time and look at each other, “Really?”  
“God you two have been together too long.”  
Ruby holds up her hands in mock surrender. “I’m just impressed. Way to go, Red.”  
Danny facepalms, blushing even though Laura and Carmilla won’t get the joke. “You can’t still be doing this. I know who you are.”  
“That joke will never get old. You’re Little Red forever. I don’t care how tall you are.”  
Regina smirks at them. She has always had an appreciation for a good inside joke; see the last thirty years of her making them and laughing to herself at the expense of the town.  
“I have to agree with your mother Red, no reason to change the nickname now.”  
“I just-you are literally-fine, fine!” Danny throws her hands up in an imitation of Ruby’s surrender.  
Laura and Carmilla are completely lost though Carmilla looks vaguely amused by the whole display as well, while Laura has a barely contained curiosity brimming slowly to the surface.  
She’s practically vibrating. “This is the perfect time for exposition. We should all sit down and talk about this right now.” She looks eagerly at Carmilla. “Has Danny ever talked to you about family because Danny has never mentioned family to me before? Don’t they look really young to be her parents and how did Regina know you were a vampire so fast?”  
Carmilla plants her hands on Laura shoulders to quell her. “Calm down, creampuff. They might just want to do a family thing right now.”  
“Well, this sort of involves you, as it happens.” Ruby shrugs. “It’s weird right? What are the odds?”  
Regina glances casually around them noting the smoldering patch of earth and some blood spattered on the lawn as well as the seasoned members of the student body attempting to ignore the Silus weirdness to keep eating lunch and the newer kids gawking openly at them all. “Perhaps we should take this somewhere more private, your room for instance?”  
“Yeah of course.” Danny begins to lead them away. “So how is everyone? Henry still enjoying his master’s program, I haven’t hear from him in the past week or so?”  
\--


End file.
